344 LUTHER BURBANK 



diluted, has a delicious fragrance; but the same 

 essence in its concentrated form is positively dis- 

 agreeable. Also the combination of two or more 

 disagreeable odors sometimes produces a delight- 

 ful fragrance in the hands of the perfumer. 



This may give the clue to the rather puzzling 

 fact that even among fragrant flowers there 

 may be found occasional blossoms that have a 

 more or less disagreeable odor. By eliminating 

 these, the quality of the odor of a bunch of flow- 

 ers is greatly bettered. Yet many persons gather 

 flowers indiscriminately without realizing why 

 some bouquets have more agreeable odor than 

 others. 



Making application of a knowledge of this 

 affinity between disagreeable and agreeable 

 odor, the search was diligently made among 

 dahlias of various races for a long time, hoping 

 to find one in which the disagreeable odor was 

 supplanted by an agreeable one. 



And at last the search was rewarded. I 

 found a dahlia that had a faint but very pleasing 

 fragrance comparable to that of magnolia 

 blossoms. 



Of course the seeds of this plant were saved, 

 and in the following season the most careful 

 search was made among the plants that grew 

 from them for fragrant flowers. And, as might 



